John Keble on Religion

John Keble was an Anglican priest, a theologian, and a poet who originated and helped lead the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive in Anglicanism the high-church ideals of the later 17th-century church.

Sermons Academical and Occasional, Sermon vii, Tract 57.

The Church has in these later ages been gradually growing imperfect and languid in her discharge of both her duties. She has not shown her ancient bold front to the civil power when profane or encroaching. She has not kept her old jealous watch against utilitarian breaches of order, or philosophical perversion of truth within her precincts.

Sermons for the Christian Year, Vol. 1, sermon 31.

The corruption of man is the prominent doctrine of the Old Testament, and the redemption of the New. The truths most repellent and distressing to human nature, but continually presented to our view in real life, are cautiously and fully impressed upon the mind before it is invited to dwell on the more elevating half of the Gospel. The degree of acceptance which the divine method of instruction meets with will always be in proportion to the humbleness and self-denial of the learner and to his sense of moral obligation.

Sermons for the Christian Year, Vol. 1, sermon 6.

[Christ] is near at hand. You have but to lift up your eyes and look, and behold Jesus Christ visibly set forth, crucified among you. He is in His Church, He is in His Scriptures, He is in your prayers, He is most especially in His Sacraments.

Tract 60

It is only safe to take God's will exactly as we find it declared in the Bible, interpreted by the Church, and not to perplex ourselves with philosophical or other fancies. Only in this way may we obtain a complete view of our condition here on earth and of our duty, building higher and higher, feeling that our foundation is sure. This is the only way of escaping the curse, that we should for ever continue to be wavering and unsteady in all the great rules and principles, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.